Marginalisation and Exclusion in Marginalisation and Exclusion in Professional Arenas:Professional Arenas:

the terms of ethnic engagement in middle-class Britainthe terms of ethnic engagement in middle-class Britain

Roger BallardCentre for Applied South Asian StudiesUniversity of Manchesterr.ballard@man.ac.ukwww.casas.org.uk

22A contemporary conundrum: A contemporary conundrum:

Racism? In Racism? In thisthis office? You must be office? You must be paranoid paranoid

• In contemporary Britain racism and professional practice are routinely assumed to be necessarily antithetical to one another– so much so that direct challenges to this presumption are relatively rarely made

and even more rarely accepted as being as soundly grounded

• Hence when a suggestion that racial marginalisation has indeed occurred is made in any specific context– it invariably precipitates feelings of outrage in the person or persons so challenged– and even if the matter is eventually taken to an industrial tribunal

an extremely risky procedure at the best of times

– the accusations are rarely accepted as justified

• So much so that one could be forgiven for concluding that all is well on this front– but for regular complaints from minority professionals that their talents and

capabilities are routinely overlooked– together with an ever-growing body of statistical evidence which provides empirical

support for such claims

• Which brings me to the core of my concerns:– how is racial and ethnic marginalisation successfully sustained in arenas where

established ideological norms are nominally implacably opposed to such practices?

33

Making sense of exclusionary practiceMaking sense of exclusionary practice

• In my view the use of the concept of ‘racism’ to account for such outcomes has ceased to have much explanatory value– it gives no insight into the processes by which precipitate exclusion

other than to suggest that it is the outcome of moral inadequacy

– but the professional middle classes know that anyway even if they would promptly deny that they themselves are affected by it

• Hence if ‘anti-racist’ initiatives are designed to precipitate sense of guilt amongst those exposed to them – their most likely impact on professional audiences is to reinforce

participants’ established sense of moral righteousness

• For if ‘anti-racism’ is already congruent with the ideological credo of middle-class professionals – such training will present few if any challenges their ideological

premises

• So yet further entrenching the very practices which the initiative were designed to challenge

44

A contemporary credoA contemporary credo• Amongst middle class professionals, open-mindedness is an

article of faith– of which a commitment to rational and technocratically

grounded decision-making is a necessary component

• Hence actions and beliefs which irrationally marginalise and/or devalue persons of non-European descent are regarded as objectionable in the extreme – to be sure such ‘racist’ notions may indeed be sustained by

members of the ill-educated lower orders – but are they are held to be entirely antithetical to the world

view of sophisticated professionals

• Hence any suggestion that a middle-class professional has deviated from this ideal is taken extremely seriously– it represents a full-frontal challenge to that person’s moral

standing

55

Re-thinking the current debateRe-thinking the current debate

• All this is now a source of ever-growing frustration– from a majority perspective anti-racist initiatives are becoming old

hat and re-labelling them ‘diversity’ brings little in the way of improvement

– meanwhile minority complaints about their de facto experience of exclusion become ever more vigorous

whilst their white colleagues very largely refuse to countenance them

• This has precipitated a real social disjunction – although it is also one which our established analytical vocabulary

fails to provide us an adequate means of comprehending just how it is precipitated and sustained

• In these circumstances it makes sense to start over– by subjecting what goes on across this disjunction to careful

empirical observation– in an effort to disentangle ourselves from the limitations of our

prior (and largely moralistic) assumptions

66Low-intensity warfare Low-intensity warfare and the rules of and the rules of

engagementengagement• Whilst Britain’s ethno-racial disjunctions very clearly marked in

some contexts– such as those across which ‘hot warfare’ erupted in the course of the

northern riots

• Those in professional circles are so low-key as to be well-nigh to invisible – so much so that many members of the indigenous majority would

deny that they exist at all

• But if they are real, interactions must by definition constantly take place across them – if only because professionals of all backgrounds operate within a

single social arena even if it is one which is riven by low-intensity warfare

• Hence the starting point of my analysis is to tease out the ‘rules of engagement’ across this nominally invisible disjunction

77Locating the battlefieldLocating the battlefield

• But just why is this disjunction it so elusive? – the logic of established assumptions holds that ‘racism’ plays

no role in professional contexts because we (sophisticated professionals) ‘don’t notice the

difference’

– if so, it follows that the disjunctions of which our minority colleagues complain must by definition be largely fictitious

– and a product of our colleagues’ over-active imaginations i. because they are grossly over-sensitive about such matters, such

that ‘chips on their shoulders’ cause them to take offence on specious grounds

ii. and/or because of their equally unfortunate tendency to behave in an unacceptably ‘clannish’ manner

• If minority professionals allow themselves to become the authors of their own distress, it follows that little can be done to assist them

– after all their white professionals can be blamed for the consequences of minority colleagues’ voluntary strategies of self-exclusion

88

Reading between the linesReading between the lines

• The foundation of this whole argument lies in the premise “I/we don’t notice the difference”, let alone do anything about it– yet how far does this assertion stand up to careful scrutiny?

• Difference, by definition, has two sides: how then are ‘we’ and ‘they’ currently identified in the UK?

• In formal terms the answer is clear:– whilst members of the visible minorities are routinely

identified either as ‘coloured’, ‘black’ or ‘ethnic’ – the most convenient (and acceptable) self-identifier used by

those who are ‘not other’ in this sense is ‘White’ as is manifest in the categories set out, and signed up to, in the

Census

• Yet just what does ‘White’ mean in this context?– and more empirically, just how are differences in skin-tone

used as a signifier of status in contemporary Britain?

99On being tannedOn being tanned• A golden tan is a positive marker for members of Britain’s white majority

– associated with expensive holidays, rude good health and sexuality its acquisition is routinely noted, and calls for compliments

• In stark contrast to similar skin tones which have been hereditarily acquired– which are not only used as an inescapable marker of alterity– but their intensification by tanning routinely goes unnoticed

failing to precipitate the complimentary remarks noted above So much so that many ‘White’ people appear to be uncertain as to whether people of

colour are subject to tanning at all

• However hereditary tans in no way pass unnoticed:– as advertising images reveal, libidinousness is an innate, and indeed envied,

characteristic of those born with dark skins such that those who lack colour-by-birth are routinely invited to make up that

deficiency through the acquisition of an artificial tan

– whilst a non-artificial tan is by definition a marker of alterity: “where are you from?”

• Given all this the conventional assertion that ‘colour goes unnoticed’ can only be described as bizarre, even though it is an everyday reality– how, then, do members of members of visible minorities negotiate the

ambiguous terrain which has consequently been prepared for them?

1010Rules of engagement in the Rules of engagement in the negotiation of difference: opening negotiation of difference: opening

gambitsgambits1. Exclusionistic behaviour on racial grounds is wholly antithetical to

professional ideological norms– hence any suggestion that a fellow professional has so behaved will

normally be read as a gross moral calumny

2. Displays of alterity are eminently acceptable, provided they are suitably exotic, and presented as sources of entertainment– hence ‘delicious curries’ are much appreciated, as are ‘gorgeous saris’

always provided they are worn at home, or in the context of carefully organised displays of multiculturalism

which in turn are presented as evidence of “how well we get on with one another”

Nevertheless such displays of alterity must be strictly limited– to cluster together to the apparent exclusion of one’s non-minority

colleagues – and above all to use a language other than English whilst doing so is

wholly out of order those who act in this way are routinely assumed to be talking behind their

colleagues backs or worse still plotting an insurrection

Stepping beyond limits of acceptable exoticism contravenes a third key rule:

1111

Opening gambits (continued)Opening gambits (continued)

3. Professional behaviour demands comprehensive conformity to established behavioural, linguistic and conceptual conventions – hence people of colour who systematically conform

to these expectations can expect to be regarded favourably by their colleagues besides being congratulated for the success in ‘fitting

in’ they will also be praised for their ability to prepare

‘delicious curries’

• However the sanctions visited on those who fail to conform to these expectations are severe– hence public acts of deviation are relatively rare

1212Nevertheless the costs of gaining Nevertheless the costs of gaining acceptance in this way are acceptance in this way are

substantial substantial

• Being in a position where one has to make constant efforts to conform to others’ agendas has unwelcome consequences:

i. creativity is necessarily hampered since one can no longer rely on one’s own internal yardsticks

ii. dual processing becomes the order of the day since the ultimate test of the validity of any action is whether

others unlike oneself would approve of it

iii. all traces of inspiration from one’s distinctive ethnic heritage must be suppressed in professional contexts since they are rendered as inappropriate as they are mistaken

• Worse still, to articulate a complaint about being expected to behave in this way become entirely inadmissible

1313

ResistanceResistance

• Despite the constraints imposed by the demands of these rules of engagement, it would be quite wrong to conclude that people of colour are consequently reduced to the position of helpless pawns– or that they consequently loose their capacity to act as agents in

their own cause

• On the contrary those required to play this game do so very actively, although with varying degrees of skill and cynicism– so producing a wide range of potential outcomes

• In making sense of these variations, two sets of factors are of particular importance

i. Players’ access to an alternative moral, ideological and conceptual order

ii. The extent of players’ investment in gaining comprehensive acceptance on the their excluders’ own terms

• Such that the major dimension of strategies of adaptation and resistance can conveniently be laid out in a two dimensional matrix

1414Potential responses to the basic rules of Potential responses to the basic rules of engagementengagement

alternative conceptual order

available

alternative conceptual order

unavailable

no great concern about acceptance

intense concern for acceptance

Hassidic Jews Reform Jews

persons of non-European descent raised by English parents

Non-engagement:

we pursue our own agenda come what may

Cynical engagement:

we play the game in public, whilst playing by alternative rules between

ourselves

Desperate efforts to gain acceptance:

there seems to be no other game in town

Overseas-trained doctorsRastafarians

Acceptance taken for granted:

wholly at home in the indigenous social order

visibility

invisibility

British-raised professionals

of visible minority origin

1515Options available to British-born minority Options available to British-born minority professionalsprofessionals

Non-engagement:

we pursue our own agenda come what may

Cynical engagement:

we play the game in public, whilst playing by alternative rules between

ourselves

Desperate efforts to gain acceptance:

there seems to be no other game in town

Acceptance taken for granted:

wholly at home in the indigenous social order

The ideal solution:

but currently unavailable

The de facto reality:

but no obvious way through to a solution

Always a temptation:

but antithetical to the desired solution

The de facto reality into which many are currently driven:

but deeply uncomfortable, since it entails accepting that one is an alien in the only

society to which one belongs

alternative conceptual order

available

alternative conceptual order

unavailable

no great concern about acceptance

intense concern for acceptance

British-raised professionals

of visible minority origin

1616The white professional perspectiveThe white professional perspective

• So long as they remain in their current state of denial about their preferred rules of engagement and their consequences – White professionals will remain blissfully ignorant of the

dilemmas faced by their minority colleagues and will invariably wish to stay that way since an acknowledgment of the reality of those dilemmas

undermines a crucial part of their vision of themselves

• Yet at the same time encounters across the disjunction are becoming ever more frequent– as more and more minority professionals appear on the scene– whose attitudes are generally much more challenging than

their ‘immigrant’ predecessors not least because they are far more familiar with the rules of the

game and hence far more likely to cry ‘foul’!

• So how are these incipient challenges currently being negotiated?

1717The rules of engagement (Part 2)The rules of engagement (Part 2)

• From a white professional perspective their minority colleagues have by definition risen from below

either from overseas, as in the case of those who arrived in search of further training in the UK

or from the ranks of working-class labour migrants– as such they deserve to be congratulated for their success

in gaining an education, not in overcoming over-coming the barriers of exclusion

– and hence are perceived as deserving further assisted in their passage upwards

• In other words no matter how great their professional competence– minority professionals remain objects of charity as far as their

white colleagues are concerned• This leads to a further rule of engagement

– minority professionals should display gratitude for being allowed to enter the arena in which they now operate

and for the further assistance so generously provided – hence the last thing they should do is to turn round and bite

hands that feed them

1818The contradictions of minority The contradictions of minority successsuccess

• Hence whilst the entry of minority professionals into positions of relative juniority is invariably welcome– since it confirms that established professionals are as open-

minded as their ideology suggests they must be

• The prospect of them gaining equality with, and worse still a position of authority over, their established peers is much more challenging– such colleagues can no longer be patronised as ‘in need of help’ – worse still their very achievements can be perceived as

undermining the personal worth of those who feel ‘unjustly overtaken’

• This leads to a further rule: – minority professionals should not be too pushy

they are lucky to have got as far as they have they should be grateful for having been allowed to do so and should certainly not allow success to ‘go to their heads’ by

challenging their established colleagues’ sense of self-worth

1919Whilst doing so they must also Whilst doing so they must also successfully navigate the reefs of office successfully navigate the reefs of office

politicspolitics• Professional arenas are complex structures with multiple hierarchies

– in which professionals and ‘support staff’ stand on entirely different ladders and where the latter are expected to act as dutiful hand-maidens to the former

• Yet however formalised the procedures of any given office may be– shortcuts are constantly taken, and glitches are constantly covered up in the

interests of smooth operation

• Not only do professionals generally cooperate by covering each others tracks – but support staff also play a key role in ‘keeping the show on the road’

so much so that if they failed to do so the whole operation would swiftly collapse

• All of which renders minority professionals acutely vulnerable: – for without the active cooperation of their colleagues

including those far junior to themselves

– fulfilling their professional tasks and hence gaining the brownie points required for further promotion

– becomes much more of an up-hill struggle

2020JealousyJealousy

• Jealousy is an emotion which is as uncontainable as it is universal

– to which ‘upstarts’ of all kinds find themselves acutely vulnerable

especially in the hot-house of office politics

– such that minority professionals can find themselves as severely harassed by jealous support staff

as they are subjected to marginalisation by their uneasy professional colleagues

• Hence jealousy – which is never acknowledged, of course – places further snares in the path of the unwary

2121Why are members of the visible Why are members of the visible minorities such a focus of jealousy?minorities such a focus of jealousy?

i. Because they are where they are– “jobs like this are very scare you know, they are lucky/should be

grateful to have such a job at all”

ii. Because they are doing well– “a lot of our people are desperate for such jobs, but this lot just

swan their way in”

iii. Because they are ungrateful– “they just take everything for granted, and then make a big fuss

when its not to their liking”

iv. Because they are small-minded– “I ask you, making such a fuss about files and paperclips, when I

was just monitoring the stationary cupboard as I’m supposed to”

v. Because they might show me up– [“by being sharper, more competent, or more insightful than I am”]

an extremely powerful motivator, but one which is never overtly articulated

vi. Because they are over privileged – “we can’t rush off an put in a complaint under the Race Relations

Act, there is no law to look after our interests”

2222The invisibility of marginalisationThe invisibility of marginalisation

1. Professional Britain no longer maintains a colour bar– there are few, if any, professional arenas from which brown and black

faces are entirely absent although the further up the hierarchy one looks, the fewer they become

2. There is disbelief that ‘reasonable people’ might deliberately act in a racist fashion – the rules of engagement now bar the expression of explicitly

exclusionist sentiments

3. Merely to raise one’s voice on these issues breaks the rules of engagement– hence active efforts are made to dismiss evidence of exclusion

“it was just an unfortunate mistake” “I think you’re being oversensitive on this one” “in my opinion it was six of one and half-a-dozen of the other”

4. Hegemons always have great difficulty in thinking their way into the shoes of those of those over whom they exercise hegemony – locked as they are within the rules of engagement

hence most white observers find it far easier to sympathise with the position of the challenged than those of the challenger

and hence to conclude that the behaviour complained of wasn’t really ‘racist’ at all

2323How the game is played is also a function of How the game is played is also a function of the terrain on which the action takes placethe terrain on which the action takes place

1. In arenas where there is no objective measure of competence – as is largely the case in public services

individual performance has little impact on largely immeasurable results such that promotion is largely dependent on the judgement of one’s colleagues

– leaving those who differ particularly vulnerable to marginalisation

2. However in more fully commercial contexts where outcomes can financially evaluated– processes of marginalisation tend to be considerably less severe

partly because more objective measures of performance are available and because difficulties can be circumvented by going into business on one’s

own right

3. Some further consequences:– commercial enterprises tend to be far more actively engaged in pursuing

the ‘brown pound’ and prepared to utilise the capabilities of their minority staff in pursuit of that

goal

– than are public agencies in providing ethno-sensitive services for members of minority communities

despite the professionally-urgent need to do so

2424Professional rules of Professional rules of engagementengagement

• For members of the indigenous majorityi. Never display outright antipathy towards people of colour; assert that

until reminded, one never even noticed the difference

• For people of colouri. Displays of ethnic alterity are eminently acceptable, provided they

are suitably exotic, and presented as sources of entertainment

ii. All manifestations of alterity should be suppressed in professional contexts, where conformity with established behavioural, linguistic and conceptual conventions is required.

iii. It is insulting to complain of unequal treatment: one should be grateful for all the assistance one has received, without which it would have been impossible to gain access to one’s current position

iv. Do not be too pushy: don’t over-step the mark

v. Do not be too clever: doing so causes one’s colleagues great embarrassment

vi. Remember that ethnic alterity is always a handicap: the thought that it might be a source of creativity and strength is ipso facto mistaken, and must always be suppressed

vii. Do not try to think outside the box: it will always end in disaster